How can you tell?
by RosyThorns
Summary: With a new student in class, things seem to be changing. The girls are in awe, the boys are in somewhat envy... And, some are unsure about a key fact in knowing just exactly this new character is.


"Hey, Niwa, do you think that you could come with me tonight to watch Phantom Dark?" The perky brunette politely asked him with a hopeful gaze in her eyes, while the redhead in front of her started to act nervous.

"U-Um, well... You see Miss Harada, I have a previous engagement with my family tonight... So, I'm very sorry!" He stuttered out very quickly, and even though he had tried to let her down as kind as he possibly could, he could still sense the look of disappointment that graced her face.

"Oh... That's alright, I understand!" She reassured him and silently walked back to her seat to finish her lunch with a small group of girls near the window. Just then, not many people noticed when Sensei walked in until she immediately asked for silence among the students.

"Everyone, please quiet down, we have a transfer student joining today, so I would like you all to show Oiwa a bit of courtesy." And it was then when several girls in the class swooned and awed in marvel of the student standing behind the teacher.

The new student's chestnut hair was cut quite short but in a type of scruffy American style that was a bit uncommon, and their blue eyes quickly scanned the room, than tilted their head to the side and looked for an empty seat, but a smirk played on their lips when they saw the star-struck girls.

"Niwa, would you mind showing Oiwa around to the classes?" Sensei asked, and Daisuke quickly nodded his head to agree to the arrangement. Only seconds after, Sensei left the room to leave for the teachers lounge, leaving almost all eyes on the new kid for a couple of seconds, before everyone returned to their previous conversations.

"Um, Oiwa-kun! It's nice to meet you, I'm Daisuke Niwa!" He said before sticking out his hand, and with a small smile on his face, Oiwa gladly shook it with a firm grip that almost made Daisuke's hand hurt.

"The feeling is mutual, Niwa-kun. Although, I would prefer it if you called me Joan." He said, followed by a small chuckle. Something about his voice sounded a bit feminine to Daisuke, but quickly brushed it aside.

Looking once again at the group of girls, they noticed that Joan was looking their way, and started to giggle in embarrassment, and at the fact of how cute they believed he was. Small compliments and praises were exchanged on his appearance between them, while somehow Joan found this quite amusing.

"What is so humorous?" He decided to ask, while he made his way over to the girls eating their lunch, and a few turned bright red, and weren't sure what to say. They started to notice that over the school uniform, he was wearing a baggy black hoodie that wasn't even zipped up, but made him look very thin.

"W-We... umm, thought you looked a little different than most boys here." One of them said, and he pretended to have a kind of shocked and somewhat pained look on his face, but it was clear that he was just acting.

"Do you mind that I am half French? Do I seem strange to you lovely ladies?" Joan asked while they started to immediately apologize to him. Yet, from his seat, Daisuke was watching the whole thing and seemed utterly confused by the new kid's actions. He certainly didn't seem like the playboy type... Daisuke thought, and continued to observe as Joan repeatedly hit on the girls, although it seemed that not everyone seemed to find him so charming.

"Hi, Niwa-kun, can you believe this guy?" Riku asked quite sternly, while staring heated glares at Joan's back. "I bet he thinks that they'll all just melt for him, I hate guys like that!" She yelled a bit quietly so that no one else would hear her. Yet, the two of them watched as the group continued to giggle with each other and look like they were enjoying themselves.

"Well, Miss Riku, maybe he isn't used to the culture yet, Joan-kun did say he was half French..." Daisuke told her, trying to make up for the case. Riku looked like she was about to argue back, but the lunch bell started to ring, signaling that it was time for swimming classes. Everyone started to gather their stuff while Joan started to say farewell to the girls, and rushed back over to Daisuke.

"We have water aerobics class right now, I can show you the way to the pool if you want." Daisuke told Joan, but he simply shook his head as a response.

"No need, pal! I've been in this school for 3 years. I think I know where the pool is!" He told him before slapping Daisuke's back in a friendly way, which of course caused Daisuke to stumble forward and almost trip.

"W-Wait, I thought you were a transfer student!" Daisuke yelled after Joan after trying to keep up with him in the hallway, who had no intention of waiting up for the redhead. When he finally kept up with his pace, a snicker escaped Joan's lips, and carelessly ruffled his brown hair.

"Yeah man, from another class! This kid got a school restraining order against me because I broke his arm, so I had to leave the class." And for a second, Daisuke had the urge to back away from this type of "playboy" type student. Seeing this, Joan started to laugh, and hit him in a friendly way on the back for a second time. "Oh, no worries man. That guy was just bullying a best friend of mine, so I had to teach em' a lesson."

Then, Joan decided to crack his knuckles and neck in a fashion that made Daisuke slightly cringe, and made him think it would be best to stay on his good side. And what seemed to made no sense to Daisuke was that Joan didn't look like the kind of guy that he was claiming to be. His composure seemed like the laid back type, but he was relatively skinny, and was about the same height as Daisuke was, so he didn't look like he could do much damage to anything.

At the quick pace that they were walking at, the two of them quickly arrived at the pool, where it was easy to tell that they were the first ones there. Daisuke automatically went for the changing room, but Joan stayed behind and handed a teacher a note, then he slumped against a random wall of the pool area and slung his oversized hood over his head while he watched the rest of the class swarm in.

A couple classmates stared a bit at Joan before entering the changing rooms, wondering what he was doing there, but his oversized hood covered most of his eyes so that he wasn't able to take notice of their glances. That was, until one student walked right up to him.

"Mind if I join you?" An unfamiliar voice to Joan said, which caused him to lift his head to see a kid with blue hair and glasses.

"Pfft, knock yourself out." Joan said before returning to his previous position, and looked like he was most likely asleep.

"Why aren't you swimming?" The blue haired boy asked, as if wanting to start a conversation, and Joan simply put on the best smile that he could muster, which turned out to resemble a smirk.

"Never learned... Name's Joan Oiwa, what's yours?" He said, lifting his head up at an attempt to make eye to eye contact with the boy, but seemed to be failing since all the boy did was stare off into space and push up his glasses to the brim of his nose.

"Satoshi Hiwatari. Good to be aquatinted with you, Owia-san." And in response, Joan lifted his head and gave Satoshi an inquizzitive and confused glance at his choice of words.

"Well, Hiwatari-kun, I know I've never been very good with Japanese honorifics... But I'm pretty sure that the proper term would be 'kun', correct?" He asked the blue haired boy, who in exchange for the remark started to study Joan up and down with some uncertainty.

"I'll be honest..." Satoshi told Joan while locking eyes with him, "I truly am uncertain of your gender, because I feel like I've seen you around school in the female uniform." He said bluntly, and caused Joan to suddenly start laughing in sheer pleasure, which ended up causing a few curious stray students to glance in their direction. None the less, they were soon ignored and continued on with the swimming lesson.

"Thanks for being honest, man. I'll let you figure that fact out for yourself, though." Joan said, flickering a mischievous smirk directed at Satoshi, who had soon lost interest in the subject, and had just started to skim through a light novel, the kind that's the size of a pocket dictionary. Leaning his head against the wall, Joan started to stare at the few stragglers who took far too long to change, and just entered the pool.

It was obvious that all the girls were checking out the guys in their red school uniformed swim trunks, whispering things that couldn't be heard within a one foot radius, a couple waving their hands stupidly at Satoshi and Joan's direction. Since Joan wasn't sure who the gesture was meant for, he didn't make any movement in response. And of course, the majority of the males were checking out all the girls in their one piece, but still quite revealing bathing suits. A couple of them close to drooling, and one with black hair attempting to snap a couple of pictures using a small camera.

_How repulsive... It's like they are just pieces of meat..._ Joan thought to himself, before deciding to close his eyes, and use one hand to rub one of his temples in annoyance. Keeping the inner rage that was starting to boil up to a minimum, it wasn't long until he could hear the familiar splashing of water, giggling, and people yelling at each other while their voices projected along the empty walls of the pool area.

Deciding he wanted no part of observing the lesson, Joan situated his hood so that it was covering most of his visible sight, and simply waited until the pointless class he couldn't participate in was over. But, even though he couldn't see it, something in his skull told him that he was being watched, and quite closely at that.

_Perhaps it's Hiwatari-kun... _He assumed, jumping to what seemed like logical conclusions. _And I can't believe he was actually unsure of my gender. Well, this game could be very interesting with a player like him._


End file.
